A controversial medical sterilization facility in Cobb County near Smyrna may soon be forced to self-report report toxic emissions to federal regulators.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency put Sterigenics on notice this month that EPA officials could mandate that the company start self-reporting its ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol emissions annually, starting in 2022.
Ethylene oxide is a flammable, colorless gas used to sterilize medical equipment. The EPA officially categorized the gas as a cancer-causing agent in 2016.
Ethylene glycol, a solvent commonly used in antifreeze and engine coolant, is essentially the liquid form of ethylene oxide.
The EPA is considering adding the reported ethylene oxide emissions to its “toxics release inventory” program. That would require 31 facilities across the nation that use the toxic gas to report their emissions. Sterigenics is the only Georgia-based facility on the list.
A spokesperson for Sotera Health, Sterigenics’ parent company, declined to comment when contacted by a reporter Friday.
The EPA flagged Sterigenics for the first time in a 2018 federal report, saying the Smyrna factory releases airborne toxins that cause an elevated risk of cancer in surrounding neighborhoods. The federal agency did not announce the report.
But media coverage in July 2019, which included extensive coverage by the AJC, highlighted the increased cancer exposure from ethylene oxide emissions. Sterigenics has faced intense scrutiny ever since.
Sterigenics has for years been legally authorized to use the toxic gas to sterilize medical equipment despite the public outcry from residents who live near the plant, just off Atlanta Road.
The EPA announced the possible reporting requirement in an Oct. 13 press release.
Michael Freedhoff, the agency’s assistant administrator, sent Sterigenics’ facility manager Daryl Mosby a letter Oct. 1. According to the letter, more than 200,000 people live within a five-mile radius of the facility. That includes 13,683 children under the age of 5, and at least 50 schools.
Freedhoff said children are more susceptible to being harmed from exposure to ethylene oxide, a mutagenic chemical that can change the DNA in a cell.
The Smyrna’s proximity to such a large population is what concerns EPA officials, according to the letter.
Sterigenics has until Oct. 31 to respond to the EPA before the agency makes its final decision, according to the notice.
Homeowners filed a lawsuit against Sterigenics last year, alleging that the ethylene oxide emissions caused their property values to plummet.
Sterigenics was named as a defendant in a separate lawsuit filed in Cobb County on Aug. 21. It alleges 53 warehouse employees got sick after handling medical equipment sterilized by Sterigenics.
“Hopefully this will lower their emissions,” said Atlanta attorney Eric Hertz, who is representing the plaintiffs in both lawsuits. “Ethylene oxide is a poisonous product that is known across the country to be seeping out of factories causing cancer and destroying property values. And it’s really something that needs to be taken seriously.”
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